Major Maker Inspiration: Musee des Arts et Metier

All of this coverage of the Detroit Maker Faire at the Henry Ford Museum has me desperate to share my summer find, the very best museum in Europe:  Musee des Arts et Metier in Paris.

Clément Ader's steam-powered bat plane, Avion III.

Founded in 1794 during the French Revolution, the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metier was charged with collecting scientific tools and inventions.  217 years later, the permanent collection is jaw-dropping, old, exhaustive, and beautiful. It’s where you’ll find first inventions in everything from energy, flight, transportation, measurement and calculation, to communications and architecture.

Like the Henry Ford, the museum’s prototype machines have that magic of industrial “simple:”  you can almost understand how the machine works by seeing all the parts.   And the inventors were often also the fabricators.  Here are just a few gems in the collection that caught my camera’s eye:

1844 electric motor by Gustave Froment

Volta's "pile" from 1799—the first electric cell

Car with propeller, Leyat, 1921

Gorgeous gears

One of many stellar, styly early bikes

Early mathematical models. Good sculpture.

Needless to say, all prime inspiration for coming home and gearing up for the second annual East Bay Mini Maker Faire.

We want flying machines, hand-built bicycles, solar ovens, goat-butchering workshops! Help us spread the word to all the quiet geniuses in garages, basements, machine shops, kitchens, gardens, and office corners across the East Bay.

Call for makers, performers, crafters, vendors for our own “museum” of arts and innovation is open through September 1.

P.S. Faire means “to make” in French.

Costume-O-Rama-Rama!

The first time I went to Maker Faire in San Mateo was in 2008, as a performer with my band Toychestra.  Except for the time on stage,  I spent almost the entirety of my day (and indeed, each time I’ve returned) inside the Swap-o-Rama-Rama — a pavilion loaded with mountains of donated clothing to sift through, unmake, re-make and up-cycle.

But it’s not just clothes.  There’s sewing machines as well as freestyle use of buttons, ribbons, glue guns, feathers and googly eyes.  A veritable textile buffet!

My favorite part was the screen printing.  You just pick out an article of clothing from the stack, take it over and choose from one of the ten or so available screens.  Mr. or Mrs. ScreenPrint would swipe the ink that you like and Voila!  A super cool t-shirt for my son—and a much improved hoody for myself.

When we started producing the EBMMF my personal Maker priority was to ensure some kind of clothing mash-up section—especially because our Mini Maker Faire will happen on the Sunday before Halloween! Costume-O-Rama-Rama! So I did a little internet searching and discovered a bit about the inspired and fearless leader of Swap-O-Rama-Rama—Wendy Tremayne.  Here are a few inspired words from the Swap website:

In 2005 Wendy created Swap-O-Rama-Rama (to observe and respond to) some of the issues that perpetuate consumerism. It got off the ground with a grant from Black Rock Arts and now takes place in cities all over the world. It has repurposed hundreds of thousands of pounds of textile waste and transformed thousands of consumers into creators.   … At Swap-O-Rama-Rama objects are imbued with meaning as would-be trash is revivified with authentic, communal creativity and spirit.

This year, the East Bay Mini Maker Faire will stage our own Swap-O-Rama-Rama thanks to Wendy and her SORR sponsor YUDU (http://whatdoyudu.com/)!  WooT!

If you want to play, just come on down on October 24.  It’ll be a great opportunity to make that ultra fabulous Halloween costume, remake some favorite clothing, or find and make some new treasure you can take home with you. And, it’s all FREE with your EBMMF admission!

If you want to help—donate some clothes—any womens/mens/kids clothing that still has some life in it. We also need sewing machines to use that day, volunteers to help with all the hijinks, and any extra materials, notions, trims or embellishments you can part with. Contact Corey for more details at coreylweinstein@gmail.com.

Swap-O-Rama-Rama by Wendy Tremayne is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Paul’s Rides and Cyclecide

The Maker Faire in San Mateo doesn’t draw 90,000 people over a single weekend because it is dry, dreary or serious.  JOY is the subtext of Maker Faire.  People come in droves to the Maker Faire because it is fun!

You might dispute this, but I would wager that the most fun and joyful exhibit at Maker Faire is the two-punch combo of Paul’s Rides and Cyclecide.   That’s why I’m particularly thrilled to announce that Paul’s Rides and Cyclecide will be making their magic happen at the inaugural 2010 East Bay Mini Maker Faire!

THE FERRIS WHEEL

Paul’s Rides are pedal-powered carnival rides.  Two- and three-person ferris wheels; tiny and big carousels, two- and six-seater dizzy toys. These are rides that make you scream out loud and make you dizzy with good old centrifugal force.   You get off and can’t walk straight.  Paul’s Rides are human-powered hilarity.

THE DIZZY TOY

THE CYCLOFUGE

“Paul” is artist Paul Ceseskwi (AKA Paul the Plumber).  He started his exploration of these circus rides in 2000 with the Dizzy Toy and building up to his 2004 masterpiece, the Star Wheel.  The Star Wheel debuted at Burning Man (which sponsored its creation), went to the 2007 Austin Maker Faire, and has been a rare experience since because of its need for space to roll. You’ll have to see this beautiful short film here to see why:

Cyclecide, though, is the band of kooks and tinkerers and performers who helped build the rides with Paul and who have incorporated the rides into a kinetic circus involving jousting, clowns, mash-up cycles, rodeo rituals, inner tubes, and tu-tus.  The Heavy Pedal Cyclecide Bike Rodeo makes it all come together.

Inspired by discarded bikes, American rodeo culture, and punk rock, Cyclecide assembled itself way back in 1995.  First it was building funny bikes (the Lawn Mower bike, crazy choppers, tall bikes, and the fire-breathing Chupacabra). Along the way it morphed into a full-blown bike rodeo, complete with a house band (“Los Banos”) and stage show, and the fabulous ride midway. The show always includes musical interludes and comedic skits and stunts involving the whacked-out bikes and the Cyclecide staff rodeo clowns, stunt riders, and beauty queens.

THE LONGEST CHOPPER

WALTER THE KLOWN

THE SUBURBAN INTRUDER

Chances to experience this quality of interactive fun just come every so often in life. Circle your calendar now for October 24 and get your g-force giggles out with the Heavy Pedal Cyclecide Bike Rodeo at the 2010 East Bay Mini Maker Faire!